Successful Science Communication as a Human Dimension

In a fast-paced world overflowing with news, with brutal competition for being first, it is a challenge to get one's own messages heard. Simple language, e.g. "mountain building" instead of "orogeny", is not enough.

The question of how (geo)science should be communicated has a clear answer: on a human level! The messenger is a human being with flesh and bones, senses and emotions. The listener also is a human being. This opens up numerous options to convey scientific discoveries. The 6 Ws (Who, When, What, Where, How and Why) are helpful, but not sufficient.

To communicate scientific findings, emotional "detours" are often the best pathway into the minds and hearts of listeners. It's not just new knowledge that fascinates; rather, the underlying conditions, seemingly unimportant circumstances, are also of interest: How did it happen? What was the weather like? How was the food?

A successful example is the book "Abenteuer Wissenschaft" (Böhlau 2020), where human needs and feelings are at the center of the book. How do geologists and geographers fare in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the Karakorum? How did the men on the frigate Novara experience and survive a typhoon in the ocean on Emperor Franz Joseph's birthday on August 18, 1858?

The BLOG Wissenschaftsgeschichte(n) (www.derstandard.at) brings together more than 60 articles on various aspects of the (geo)sciences. Unexpected interdisciplinary connections, or seemingly marginal, previously unnoticed detail on human fates characterize these thoroughly researched articles. It is this human-centered approach that attracts a wide community of readers.